By Gift Chapi-Odekina
The House of Representatives on has queried the Directors-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria FRCN Mansur Liman and his Voice of Nigeria Counterpart Osita Okechukwu over the purported outright sales and leases of government properties in parts of Nigeria.
Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Abandoned Properties Rep. Ademorin Kuye and other members of the probe panel at an investigative hearing had grilled the two top government agencies officials on the reports to the committee on the sale of some properties of the agencies.
He had hinted that the Adhoc Committee vide a letters had written to the Special Presidential Investigative Committee on Sale of Abandoned Properties to the two agencies in March 2020 separately requesting the documents on the sales as well as processes and proceeds of it.
The probe panel helmsman while grilling the two top chief executive officers of the information agencies requested the evidences of the valuation of the sold or leased properties and hand over documents of the properties to find out the real reason for the sales and leases.
Some of the federal agencies properties said to have been sold or leased by the foremost broadcast agency include Lagos Zonal Office of the FRCN, 30 hectares of land in Kano, and No 3 Savage Crescent GRA Enugu property of the agency said to be under litigation.
But the FRCN DG in his testimony before the ad-choc committee said the agency bought the Lagos property in 2010 from the Special Presidential Committee on Abandoned Properties and later sold it to Seaman Tech Co Ltd Idumota Lagos before it was gutted by fire.
He further told the probe panel that he made enquires at the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC on the property and was they confirmed that the Special Presidential Committee on Abandoned Properties had sold the property.
He said:” I made enquiries at the CAC and some names came up. I showed the documents to the honorable Minister and he said that it is a government building and further said he ‘ll take it up at the Federal Executive Council FEC”
Fielding more questions on the sale of the Lagos property from Hon. Lynda Ikpeazu from Anambra State and other lawmakers on what led to the sale and for how much, he said that there was no plan to sell the property even as there was no insurance cover on it.
On the Kano landed property of the agency, he said that the property is about 30 hectares of land adding that the report the agency has is that some elements had began selling some parts of the land to build estates.
He added that the property was handed over to the Kano State Government by the military government after a coup.
On the Enugu property of the agency it was said to have been had been leased out at N20 million to Innoson Technical Co Ltd and a memorandum of understanding was signed by the Minister with the lease..
Nontheless before the the new owner was able to put up any structure at area, it was demolished which led to initiation of a legal action against the agency.
The Committee Chairman who later constituted some 3-man sub committee to inspect some of these properties also demanded the valuation report, mandate extract, evidence of remittances to the federation account from the sale and all the documents relating to sales and leases.
He infomed that due to the complacency of the Kano State government the probe panel is yet to get the reaction of the later on the agency’s land issue in the state.
